Egg timer fertility test

A scientific breakthrough nicknamed "the egg timer test" will allow women for the first time to know how fast their biological clock is ticking.

From March, IVF Australia is offering a simple and cheap Anti-Mullerian Hormone blood test to clients, after it was recently proven as the best-known indicator of fertility.

Assistant Professor Peter Illingworth, the medical director of IVF Australia, says the test is a big step forward."For a woman who is facing decisions about how active they should get about chasing her fertility in one way or another, it's information about what the future may hold for her," he says.

"For a 30-year-old woman it gives her an idea of whether she's at risk of having an early menopause or she's got plenty of time to carry on and have a baby."

The revolutionary test costing only $65 will for the first time accurately tell women how many eggs they have left, indicating whether a couple should strive for natural conception, try IVF treatment or, in severe cases, consider options such as adoption or egg donation.

The test measures AMH, a hormone that is produced by some cells in ovarian follicles. The levels of AMH detected in a woman's blood are thought to reflect the egg supply remaining in the woman's ovary - this has been described as the 'ovarian reserve'.

As a woman ages, the supply of follicles in the ovary decreases and this in turn is reflected by a decline in the AMH detected in the blood

Professor Illingworth said the test measured the concentration of a specific hormone found in a woman's ovaries, called anti-mullerian hormone (AMH).

AMH testing could potentially save couples tens of thousands of dollars in IVF treatments sure to be unsuccessful, as well as remove the heartbreak of uncertainty.

It will also act as a crystal ball for younger women who want to put off having babies until their late 30s or 40s, allowing them to plan whether they have the time to wait based on their current egg count.

A woman is born with one to two million eggs and over the course of her life they are gradually used up every month until menopause hits in a woman's 50s.

Professor Illingworth said an average 20-year-old woman would have a bank of 200,000 eggs, a number that halves as she enters her 30s and can drop to as low as 2000 after the age of 40.

The test would help cancer survivors and endometriosis sufferers learn how depleted their egg count had become from treatment.

Before now, a woman wanting to test her egg number would undergo three blood tests and an ovarian scan on a certain day of her menstrual cycle, which would have showed only severe cases of egg depletion without giving a definitive number.The process was so expensive it was not an option offered by IVF Australia.

"Now it is clear this blood test is all that's needed, which has simplified it and brought the cost down, making it much more applicable," Professor Illingworth said.

"From my perspective as a doctor, this test gives us a basis of providing advice to women on how quickly they should get involved in active treatment.

"For example, it is a common situation for a couple to try for six or eight months and go to a fertility clinic to seek advice.

"If all the tests are normal at that point, then there's no rush for them to seek treatment because simply by waiting longer they can still have a good chance of getting pregnant naturally.

"However, if, on the other hand, the blood test shows the woman has only a small number of eggs left, that would change things."

A low AMH level indicates a low egg reserve and therefore a possible poor response to the drugs used in IVF.

On the other end of the spectrum, abnormally high levels can mean over-stimulisation and be indicative of polycystic ovarian syndrome. Women wishing to take the test usually need to get a referral from their GP to undertake the testing at an IVF clinic.